out Parliament's approbation. Hamilton
offered compromises, for William clung to "the Articles"; but he
abandoned them in the following year, and thenceforth till the Union
(1707) the Scottish was "a Free Parliament." Various measures of
legislation for the Kirk---some to emancipate it as in its palmy days,
some to keep it from meddling in politics--were proposed; some measures
to abolish, some to retain lay patronage of livings, were mooted. The
advanced party for a while put a stop to the appointment of judges, but
in August came news of the Viscount Dundee in the north which terrified
parliamentary politicians.

Edinburgh Castle had been tamely yielded by the Duke of Gordon;
Balcarres, the associate of Dundee, had been imprisoned; but Dundee
himself, after being declared a rebel, in April raised the standard of
King James. As against him the Whigs relied on Mackay, a brave officer
who had been in Dutch service, and now commanded regiments of the Scots
Brigade of Holland. Mackay pursued Dundee, as Baillie had pursued
Montrose, through the north: at Inverness, Dundee picked up some
Macdonalds under Keppoch, but Keppoch was not satisfactory, being
something of a freebooter. The Viscount now rode to the centre of his
hopes, to the Macdonalds of Glengarry, the Camerons of Lochiel, and the
Macleans who had been robbed of their lands by the Earl of Argyll,
executed in 1685. Dundee summoned them to Lochiel's house on Loch Arkaig
for May 18; he visited Atholl and Badenoch; found a few mounted men as
recruits at Dundee; returned through the wilds to Lochaber, and sent
round that old summons to a rising, the Fiery Cross, charred and dipped
in a goat's blood.

Much time was spent in preliminary manoeuvring and sparring between
Mackay, now reinforced by English regulars, and Dundee, who for a time
disbanded his levies, while Mackay went to receive fresh forces and to
consult the Government at Edinburgh. He decided to march to the west and
bridle the clans by erecting a strong fort at Inverlochy, where Montrose
routed Argyll. A stronghold at Inverlochy menaced the Macdonalds to the
north, and the Camerons in Lochaber, and, southwards, the Stewarts in
Appin. But to reach Inverlochy Mackay had to march up the Tay, past
Blair Atholl, and so westward through very wild mountainous country. To
oppose him Dundee had collected 4000 of the clansmen, and awaited
ammunition and men from James, then in Ireland. By the advice of t